The art & science of coffee making

Prepare your sluggish brain for Workshop: Just opened in Marylebone, this sister spot to Clerkenwell's St. Ali not only uses highly scientific methods to create life-changing cappuccinos, lattes, etc., with their house-roasted espresso beans, it's proprietors will also teach you how to blow the mind of whatever girl/relative/home-invader you've got shacked up with you by teaching you a trio of exotic filtration methods at their Brewstation, then selling you the equipment to pull them off on your own. What they must do themselves: Every morning, they use lab-like equipment to "dial in" new beans and blends, accounting for the age of the coffee, atmospheric conditions, blend type, etc., by adjusting the exact number of beans in each cup, plus grind size, extraction time, and water weight/temperature down to 0.1 degrees, or about what a 2:2 in media studies is now worth. What they'll teach/sell you: The simplest tool's the Japanese V60 -- which uses a cup-shaped filter and sustained slow pour to drip-feed into a carafe -- followed by the more complex siphon brewer, whose bright red halogen heats the water and bubbles it through a vacuum-sealed filter, caffeinating your joe to deliriously spastic levels by keeping the water in contact with the grounds longer. Finally there's the tube-like AeroPress, which uses a layer of compressed air to get the goodness out, and was actually invented by the man who brought us the Aerobie -- a morning reminder that, if you're seeing astonishing flying rings flying above you, you could really use some coffee.